In CompTIA's 2016 MSP study, the take-away is that MSPs expect to make more revenue, but they don't know how that will be. "Their optimism is countered by continuing worries about their role in a market increasingly dominated by cloud computing solutions and by a persistent problem with employee retention," reports the CompTIA press release.

"But bullishness on future business is tempered by worries about margin erosion. Just over half of the firms cite margin erosion as a factor that keeps them awake at night." Every sector of telecom and IT is seeing price pressure.

All the changes happening in the IT World is also causing trouble in the Channel, as anyone in the channel can attest to. CompTIA released its Third Annual State of the Channel Study: Channel Conflict and Deal Registration Trends, an online survey of 350 U.S. IT company executives conducted in February 2013.

the study found that "Eight in 10 say conflict has affected their business negatively, including 21 percent that described the impact as "major."